The End

Joe's Note: Christ almighty, I got a lot of shit for last chapter. I mean, granted I wasn't quite as transparent as I could have been… but I didn't think the whole Megan/J'onn thing was that out of left field. And for those of you who read the comics, Megan was originally intended to be J'onn in disguise until DC shifted the creative team and the new author opted not to wig people out by revealing that one of the JLA's Big Seven had been living as a teenage girl. And yes, I know this for a fact, because I know the man who created Megan in the first place.


     As soon as she stepped through the front doors of school the next morning, Callista knew something was wrong. Very wrong. Very Wrong, even. Instead of the friendly smiles from girls and lusty stares from guys, she was greeted with almost universal looks of disgust and hatred. Ooookay. What had she done? She looked down. No, no white after Labor Day or clashing colors. Not that the guys would understand that anyways. Hell, she barely understood it and she was trying to pass for a girl. Okay, so if she didn't look bad… and she didn't remember pissing anyone off lately… why were they looking at her like that? She was stumped.

     Luckily (or unluckily) for her, Harmony came stomping over to her and quickly provided an explanation. Pulling her hand back, the blonde attempted to slap Callista but it was almost child's play for someone with her abilities to dodge it. Rather than trying again, Harmony crossed her arms over her chest and glared. "Guess you weren't lying when you told us you weren't a lesbian. It's not gay when it's a girl and a guy is it, Xander?"

     The usage of her original name made Callista flinch back. "What… how..?" Then she stared over Harmony's shoulder and caught sight of a supremely smug-looking redhead. "Willow…" Suddenly, pushing the redhead away didn't seem like quite as good an idea. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and all that. "Listen, it's not what you think."

     "So you haven't been lying to us through your teeth for the last month about who you are and where you're from, while we treat you like a real girl?" Harmony arched a brow and then something occurred to her and she shuddered. "God, I can't believe we had to share a shower with you. I feel violated."

     Callista snorted and crossed her own arms over her chest. "Trust me, you're not anything worth looking at, Harmony. Especially when my own body is… well… this." She gestured to her own form. "And yes, I have been lying, but it's not what you think. I don't know what Willow told you, but I didn't choose this. The same thing that turned Cordelia green is what turned me from Xander into Callista. If we could reverse it, we could, but we can't. And so I have to make the best of it."

     A flicker of sympathy crossed Harmony's face before it hardened again and she sneered. "Yeah, by taking advantage of our trust!"

     "Oh for the love of… what was I supposed to do? Show up for class and go 'hi, it's me Xander, try and ignore my new boobs, okay?'?" Callista sighed and treated the Cordettes to her best puppy dog eyes. "This was my only option. I wasn't trying to take advantage of you or hide who I really am, but would you really have believed me if I'd told you guys the truth from the beginning? Would you have even given me a chance?"

     "No."

     "No."

     "No."

     "No." Aphrodesia gave Callista an unreadable look before turning away. "But we should have been allowed to make that choice. Not you." The others glared at her before following, the rest of the students pointing and whispering as they filed into their respective classes. And then it was just Callista standing alone in the middle of the hall.

     Except for one other.

     "You God damn bitch!" Racing down the hall, Callista wrapped her around Willow's throat and lifted the redhead off the ground, slamming her into the wall. "How could you? What, if you couldn't have me for yourself, you figured you'd make sure nobody else would want to go near me? I'm going to have to move now. I'm going to have to get a new identity now, just in case anyone in town tells spreads the word about 'Callista McKinney'. God. How could you be so fucking selfish, Willow?"

     Willow clawed at the fingers around her throat, but even with the position she was in, she managed to look contemptuous. "You're… one… to… talk… about… selfish…"

     A pair of arms wrapped around her from behind and a faint whiff of chocolate caught Callista's nose. "What's done is done, Callista. Put her down before you seriously hurt her. Please."

     Callista looked back over her shoulder at Megan, not finding it the slightest bit odd that the inches shorter girl was at eye level with her, before returning her attention to Willow. "What if I want to hurt her?" Willow's already wide eyes grew wider and she began to struggle more violently. "I finally had a life, and she took it from me. Why can't I take hers from her?"

     "Because dad doesn't feel like visiting his new girlfriend at wherever California sends their female convicts to rot?" Another voice made Callista look back, and she blinked at the strange girl who was standing behind Megan. Well, not that there was anything terribly off about her appearance the way there was with Rachel or Koriand'r; she had pale skin, green eyes, and chin length red hair that was a natural shade of red rather than the bizarre bright red of Megan's. And she was wearing a Union Jack t-shirt and jeans… nothing too odd there. Still, there was just something a bit off about her in Callista's mind. "But hey, if you want to end up lying back so the penal system can teach you a lesson… by all means, choke her to death."

     It took Callista a moment to place the quote and she snorted as she tossed Willow away, watching the redhead bounce twice and skid a short distance across the floor before coming to rest against a wall. "I was about to kill someone, and you're quoting Family Guy at me?"

     The stranger shrugged. "Don't knock it till you try it. You stopped trying to kill her, didn't you?" As she stepped closer, Willow took off running but none of them made a move to stop her. "Don't worry, I'll get her later. Introductions first. You're the Callista my dad won't stop thinking about. My name is Dawn. Dawn Jones." Then her features shifted, her skin turning green as her hair and eyes turned the same bright red as Megan's. "Or D'awnn J'onzz, if you prefer."

     "You!" While Callista hadn't seen much of the voyeur in Cordelia's solarium that one night, the glimpse she'd gotten was memorable enough. "You were watching Cordy and I sleep a few weeks back."

     Dawn (Callista felt weird thinking names with apostrophes) shook her head before clapping a hand down on Megan's shoulder. "Nope. I was in… not sure where, because I don't know which night you're talking about. But since I don't come here except when dad needs help, I'm pretty sure it was him and not me."

     That was the second time that Dawn had referred to Megan with male terms and it was starting to give Callista another Bad Feeling. "What's going on, Megan? Why does she call you 'dad'? And 'him'? Because we didn't get too far, but I'm pretty sure you're a girl…"

     "Actually…" Megan gave a helpless shrug before her features shifted and she was as green as Dawn. Then she began to bulk up… and up… and up… growing from an under five foot, pixie of a girl into an over six and a half foot tall behemoth of a man. A green-skinned, red-eyed behemoth of a man with an almost caveman-like brow. Dawn's face shifted a bit as well, turning them into a matched set of non-humans. "Perhaps I should introduce myself properly. My name is J'onn J'onzz. D'awnn is my daughter."

     "John. Oh, well isn't this just fucking fabulous. Hey, someone go find Harm! I'm still straight! Except it turns out that I'm the girl and you're the boy." Twisting, Callista punched the wall with all her might and then let out a deep breath, staring at the crater the impact had made. "What… just… what are you doing here, Megan? Or John. Or J'onn. Whatever your name is."

     Her boyfriend-girlfriend-alienshapeshifterfriend gestured out at the school around them. "Remember how we got sidetracked last night when we were discussing my powers?" Yes, she did, and now Callista… actually empathized with the Cordettes a bit. She definitely wouldn't have given J'onn the same chances as J'onn that she'd given Megan. Wow. Major hypocrisy she had going there. And the fact that she realized as much meant it was going to be a bitch to stay mad at J'onn in the long run. Grr. "One of the powers we didn't get to is my shapeshifting. Another is telepathy. My daughter and I are going to wipe the minds of every student in the school, so your secret will now belong to Rupert Giles alone."

     It was actually easy to separate J'onn from Megan, Callista realized; Megan sounded like a teenage girl should, while J'onn talked more like Giles. But then, if one being could slip in and out of two roles that different… which was the real personality and which was the façade? Obviously J'onn had lived as a male for a while if he had a daughter… but then again, if they were green shapeshifting creatures, who knew what passed for sexuality and reproduction among them?

     And if J'onn and D'awnn were telepathic enough to change the minds of every student in Sunnydale High… how come they hadn't known about what Willow was planning. Couldn't they have stopped her before she pulled this bullshit? J'onn nodded and Callista's eyes widened. Wait, was he reading her mind right now? He nodded again. And he'd known and could have stopped it? A third nod. Oh, he was SO in the fucking doghouse. J'onn winced and D'awnn gave her father a smirk before elbowing him in the ribs. Great, she couldn't even think abuse without him hearing it and her eavesdropping. Looovely.

     Callista sighed and rubbed her temples. "Fine. Have fun doing whatever you want; that seems to be your usual MO when it comes to me. I'm going to go home. I know you know where to find me, seeing as how you've been spying on me there. D'awnn, I'd say it was nice meeting you, but seeing as how you just shattered any normalcy left in my life… yeah." And with that, Callista picked up the purse she had dropped during her attack on Willow, and made her way out of the school.